All devices I wanted to get, but when you're a kid, depending on Dad to buy multi-thousand dollar equipment, it's kind of a hard sell... I had to make do with the Atari 2600, the 1200XL, the 1040STf, the Lynx, and the Jaguar.

I saw where somebody edited his Wikipedia page yesterday to indicate his death, and I checked the editor's IP address and it came from the area where the Tramiel clan live. I figure a family member reported his death on there only for Wikipedia to later delete it thinking it was a joke. No joke. One of the fathers of the computer industry is no longer with us.

And I'm playing devil's advocate here when I say Jack Tramiel did not run Atari into the ground. If it weren't for Jack buying Atari's consumer division, the 2600 and 7800 would have died way sooner than they actually did, and there would be no Atari ST or Atari Lynx or Atari Jaguar. If it weren't for Jack, Atari's consumer division would have likely either been liquidated or sold for pennies on the dollar to a company like Nintendo. Atari's downfall began when Jack stepped away from day-to-day operations and put Sam in charge. I mean no disrespect to Sam in his time of grief, but I have to call a spade a spade. Sam just didn't have his father's business mind.

I mean no disrespect to Sam in his time of grief, but I have to call a spade a spade. Sam just didn't have his father's business mind.

No, you don't have to call a spade a spade at this time. You have plenty of time to reminisce and criticize the downfall of Atari. But this is a time to celebrate the passing of someone who helped give joy to our childhoods...

I highly recommend "Commodore: A Company on the Edge." Fascinating read. Not all about Jack, of course, but he's obviously a prominent figure in the book and it gives a little bit of insight. Truly a legend in the industry. His company's products certainly shaped my life.

I wanted to inform people likely to be interested but might not know yet and indeed my first comment on the video confirmed I did just that, thanks to Retro Rogue for the early info. I figured this would be the fastest way to reach my subscribers as well I have posted and shared links and info everywhere relevant I could think of.

A great, amazing, and strong man. Did a lot for the computer industry in general and played a major role in bringing affordable computers into homes. Thank you Jack, for all you did, the very least of which was providing the best toys and learning tools I had as a young man.

I saw where somebody edited his Wikipedia page yesterday to indicate his death, and I checked the editor's IP address and it came from the area where the Tramiel clan live. I figure a family member reported his death on there only for Wikipedia to later delete it thinking it was a joke. No joke. One of the fathers of the computer industry is no longer with us.

That was myself (wgungfu) and another editor. It wasn't that it was a joke per se, in that because of the rules and regulations laid out in the biography of living persons guidelines those sorts of things have to be reverted right away unless they include a reliable source.

So I immediately messaged Leonard and several other family members (around 3AM Central), and Leonard got back to me around 11:30AM central that indeed his father had passed away. Since they hadn't released any news about it (no official press release, etc. obviously because they were still grieving) which meant no official news service was picking up on it, I contacted Dave over at Forbes to get one going. After he verified it with the family as well (since he just can't take my word for it) he crafted up a quick obit article which I helped with a number of details on. I then added in the article as a refernce for his death on Wikipedia, as well as post about the death on Facebook and here of course.

There's going to be a larger regular article at Forbes this week, and it looks like a guest posting/article regarding Jack's legacy co-written by myself and Brian Bagnall.

And I'm playing devil's advocate here when I say Jack Tramiel did not run Atari into the ground. If it weren't for Jack buying Atari's consumer division, the 2600 and 7800 would have died way sooner than they actually did, and there would be no Atari ST or Atari Lynx or Atari Jaguar. If it weren't for Jack, Atari's consumer division would have likely either been liquidated or sold for pennies on the dollar to a company like Nintendo. Atari's downfall began when Jack stepped away from day-to-day operations and put Sam in charge. I mean no disrespect to Sam in his time of grief, but I have to call a spade a spade. Sam just didn't have his father's business mind.

Jack did a yeoman's work. The reason he got consumer for "no money down" was because he also took on almost all the debt from Atari Inc. to get it off of Warner's books. That meant his new company started far in the negative with no real income to keep operations going. He had to sink in a lot of his own personal money, and even then the bulk of income during that period was supposed to have come from money Atari Inc. had been owed by other companies that Warner said Jack could go after and collect on. That never happened, he couldn't get anyone to pay up and had to renegotiate again with Warner for help. From smartly moving inherited back stock (at a time when the market was flush with deeply discounted product) and eventually 520 ST sales he was able to completely wipe out that massive mound of debt and bring Atari Corporation in to a profitable business. Just an absolutely amazing feat.

firing up my ST as we speak! I really think more of him with Atari, I never was a commodore guy. I do appreciate all the extra time a fun provided by him in the good old Atari days! Thanks Jack!

I still have my ST! But my floppy drive was getting flaky even in its heyday. Plus, I assume those floppy disks wouldn't work after 20 years of sitting there. So the ST just sits in a box, all lonely...

I still have a pair of SC1224 monitors for my Jaguars with a pair of Catboxes for network play but no games to play on it except for Doom which is way too buggy to have much fun. I so wished for the impossible Battlesphere but that's a pipe dream that I can't afford.